


Ghosts

by lordclover



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 18:34:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20344765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordclover/pseuds/lordclover
Summary: A one shot of Sadie's struggle adjusting to life without Jake.





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an idea I had. I personally never use the horse you can get in the beginning just because it is the Adler horse and I was just thinking about how seeing Arthur riding on the horse would affect Sadie

Days passed slowly. The sun would hover over the camp and move agonizingly slowly across the sky, its gaze locked onto Sadie. It had been several weeks since Jake had died, but the wound still felt fresh. She was beginning to wonder if the pain would ever subside, or if each day when she woke up and her gaze slipped to where he should be her heart would always tighten painfully. Everything felt wrong, she was waiting for the moment she finally woke up from this nightmare.  
Yet it never came.  
The sun mocked her each day, reminding her that time was moving on without her. Eventually she’d have to find a way to move on to. She didn’t know how to; she had seen him every day for years. Now he was just gone. Just like that.  
It seemed impossibly easy for him to be gone. He’d been so central to her life; she had spent every day with him. Now it seemed like they’d barely had any time together. She was struggling to remember their last conversations, before the O’Driscolls. Even the sound of his voice was becoming distant. How long had it been? Only a few weeks now.  
Sadie looked around the camp, her gaze moving slowly. She didn’t know what she would do now. There was no where else for her to go, Jake, their ranch, it had been her entire world. It had been destroyed in a single night.  
She took in a deep breath.  
Abigail smiled at her as she passed and Sadie attempted to smile back, but it was weak and faltered the moment Abigail continued. Abigail had been kind to her. She had sat with her while she was grieving, spoken with her. Abigail was one of the only people she trusted in this camp.  
She didn’t know how to feel about the others. Arthur was the only other she came close to trusting. He was an enigma to her. At times he seemed like a good man, he’d been kind to her when they’d first found her, and he was one of the few men she saw doing chores regularly. Yet he had also undoubtedly robbed many. He might have even robbed her if the O’Driscolls hadn’t gotten there first. Sure, he wouldn’t have burned the place down, but she wondered what might have happened.  
Would he have killed Jake too? Or would they only ask for help?  
There was no telling with him. He seemed to be able to go either way and it was far too soon for her to be able to see where he stood morally.  
He had talked to her a few times, checked on her, but Sadie had been distant. He didn’t seem to know how to talk with her, he struggled to find more to say then a few repeating phrases. He tried to console her, but there wasn’t much consolation he could offer her.  
Sadie looked up to see a rider returning to camp. As it drew closer, her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes widened hopefully as she watched the all too familiar horse approach, his horse. For a moment she was sure it was Jake, but as he moved closer, he moved closer and it was painfully clear… it was Arthur.  
Jake was dead.  
Arthur and Jake didn’t share many familiarities, but from a distance it was just enough. Jake’s hair was darker, his jaw more squared, his build stockier. Yet when Arthur was on his horse, his hat casting a shadow on his hair, he looked painfully similar.  
She was glad when he got another horse. Finally, she didn’t have to wonder if it was Jake, there wasn’t any hoping the horse’s rider was him. She remembered Arthur approaching her, asking what she wanted to do with the horse. It was hers, after all. She told him to tell it. She didn’t know why she did, the words escaped her before she could stop it.  
For a moment she almost regretted it, but she knew the horse would only remind her of her old life. It was gone, burned away. She had to move on, somehow.  
He brought her the money the next day and offered to take her to buy a horse.  
Eventually, she would take him up on that. Eventually she would need a horse, but for now she needed time. She didn’t know how long she would stay with the gang; all she knew was what she wanted.  
She wanted to see the O’Driscolls burn.


End file.
